Day 37: Stanley Cup Game 7

Salmon, Idaho

Distance for the day: 456.9 km

Cumulative distance: 8,337.4 km

Top speed: 135 kph

Moving average: 93 kph

Temperature:  13.8 - 38.0

Today's post is on hold due to the Oiler's game. 

We have watched two complete rounds plus the last game of the 2nd round while on this trip.

Well, we're heartbroken. But we are proud of our team. Only one goal away from a Stanley Cup for Canada.

We had a good day today. We were all organized when we went to bed last night so when we woke up at 10 to 7 this morning, we were out of bed promptly, packed, loaded and on the road by 7:30. Didn't know where we were going but we were going.

By default, our first stop was in Idaho Falls. We needed a coffee and to figure out where we were going. I asked the Garmin for a coffee recommendation and got a Starbucks listing so went to the location and no Starbucks. That is the second time Garmin has done that on this trip.

We found and alternate and while it was primarily a drive through coffee stop, they did have two tables outside, which would have meant drinking our coffees in the howling wind but alas, there were three high chairs inside. We looked in several northerly directions for a suitable destination at a reasonable price and ultimately settled on Salmon. We were determined that we were going to be somewhere that we would be able to see the hockey game and ended up calling a couple of places to make sure they had TVs and good internet. Last night would have been a disaster with the cell service.

It was too early to eat at the coffee shop (not even sure they had anything to eat) so after we had booked a room we pressed on. Of course, Garmin took us all over the place in order to avoid a mile of interstate but with a destination and a reservation, we weren't stressed about it.

We are riding for an hour and a half and getting hungry. Our route took us through the Hinterland - no restaurants, and only the rare gas station. We did find a gas station and they had freshly fried chicken but somehow, I couldn't bring myself to eat gas station fried chicken, as hungry as I was. We had Garmin for a restaurant and again, we were directed to a non-existant restaurant. Seems to be a habit. We press on and we finally find a place almost all the way to Salmon: a gas station of sorts in Leadore that had a lunch bar where they made subs, hot dogs and burgers, with picnic tables outside. And home made cookies. With people inside wearing MAGA hats.

Shortly before we had reached Leadore, we passed by a small community that was a mile off the road. Called Gimore, we saw an historical sign on the highway that told something about the town. While we were having our lunches prepared, I asked the young gal making my sub and Nan's hot dog if Gilmore had any services and she told me that it was a ghost town but now had residents of sorts there with RVs and trailers occupying lots. Then I asked her about the origin of the name Leadore and she explained to me that they use to mine lead AND ore in the local mine!

Our lunch was surprisingly good and we decided that since we had time on our hands, we would go back and take a look at Gilmore, so we rode back the 25 km, then a couple of km of gravel to take a look. 

Gilmore was the original business hub in the area. It was there to support the local silver mine and it is where the railroad from Montana ended that took $11.5 million of silver out of the valley until an explosion at the power plant, then the Depression pretty much killed the mine. Gilmore was founded in the 1880s and eventually had a population of 600. Today, a number of buildings remain, though crumbling. There are quite a few trailers and a few RVs parked there, most with signs that say "private property" or disparaging remarks about intimate relations with President Biden. Gilmore looked less like a ghost town and more a collection of squatters and hoarders. Just driving around in the "village", we ended up going down one road that in fact, was a driveway into a private yard. There were a number of threatening signs on the owner's trailer and it made us pretty nervous. You know everybody here is packin'. Nan jumped off the bike so I could make an easier turnaround, which was probably a good idea so that if we were seen, it would look less like we were scoping the place out. We didn't actually see anybody up there but I would not have been at all surprised if places were booby trapped.  Back in 2009, four state troopers had gone up there to confront a resident but they were only met with gunfire.  We were just as happy to making an exit. It wasn't what we thought it might be.

It was only an hour to Salmon and we were there and checked in by 2:45. They had a special place for motorcycle parking along with a hose and rags for wiping things down. This was particularly useful as we had been riding gravel and camping the night before so the bike and panniers were pretty dusty. And has plenty of bug splatter.

We walked about 20 minutes to get groceries for dinner and "refreshments"

Day 36: Those gas fumes smell good.

Snake River, just below Palisades Reservoir, about 16 km south of Palisades, Wyoming 

Distance for the day: 468.5 km

Cumulative distance: 7,880.5 km

Top speed: 127 kph

Moving average: 87 kph

Temperature:  17.6 - 40.6

Only one bar of cell service, so no pictures tonight. Tomorrow. I promise.

We are going camping. Camping spots are hard to come by so we were up early in hopes of not being denied, with a target of Alpine, Idaho. There are a few campgrounds near there with one having first come - first serve spots available and one other that is entirely first - come first serve.

We woke at 10 to 7 and we were loaded and on the road by 8:10. 

We gas up in Kamas, not far from Park City. I'm not terribly motivated because we have gone only 323 km on this tank so plenty of milage to go but for safety sake, this trip I have generally filled up when we have used 300+ km of gas.

We started out by riding through the Wasatch National Forest just north of Park City. Amazingly beautiful. Ironically, we pass by a dozen or more campgrounds right up to the summit at 3200 metres and beyond. Plus, with it being a National Forest, people are allowed to camp anywhere they damn well please so there are many roadside turnouts with flat areas near lakes and streams wholly occupied by campers. Most campers outside of campgrounds have motor homes or trailers, which is a good thing because who wants to see people near the side of then road doing their business, as Nan saw this morning.

It is a fairly long ride through Wasatch partly because the roads are twisty but also because there is a lot of traffic of people going home from the weekend. 

We get to Evanston and I note this is the location of the next gas station after Kamas, which means I would have been into our tank of gas to about 450 km and thus, i would have been sweating bullets."How is this MY fault?", she would have asked. When we ran out, or nearly.

And since  Evanston was our first real opportunity to stop for a break and have some breakfast, especially as it is about 10:20, we are desperate. We stopped to get cash and check the map. NONE of the ma and pa places downtown Evanston on a Sunday morning are open so we choose Rotten Ronnie's because they generally have good coffee. But we are thinking they have some healthy options for breakfast, too.

Turns out the healthy option is black coffee. Still, we fill up.

Alas, with it being a Sunday, people were packing up and clearing out, so would have been plenty of beautiful camping spots to occupy had that been our choice. However, we are motivated to go further and have our choice of spots for Monday  night because we think we will be up and on the road early Monday.

It  warms up some more. We get to Alpine and the town is packed. They have some kind of summer festival happening so our hearts sink because we think everything will be occupied but we see a motel with vacancy and we regain our hope. It turns out these revelers are just getting all they can out of their weekend. Good for them!

We come to the first campground and ride through and  all the camp spots are reserved save one, which is a double spot for $40. We ride onto the next one and there are plenty of spots open including a couple of lovely ones by the river, so we claim one for our own.

We go to bed early - before sundown in fact and so it is still so warm we are laying on top of our air mattresses, using our sleeping bags as pillows. I'm sure that will change.

Day 35: No shopping here!

Heber City, Utah

Distance for the day: 84.4 km

Cumulative distance: 7,412.0 km

Top speed: 94 kph

Moving average: 46 kph

Temperature:  24.8 - 35.0

Maintenance day today, starting with laundry at a laundromat where more than half the machines were out of order. But as the reviews said, "way better than that other  sh*t hole". There are only two laundromats in Heber City. My recommendation would be that you don't go out of your way to do laundry here. At least bit was walking g distance for us. Not likely for you.

Even though we were done laundry pretty early, we were ready for a good breakfast. Almost directly between us and the laundromat was Chick's Cafe. Now, with a name like that I was somehow expecting that this was going to be a place catering to chicks, serving espressos, petit fours and croissants. It turns out Chick was the original owner and the place was filled with truckers, people out and about doing their Saturday chores, and farmers in town picking up their weekly supplies. No espressos to be had. We each had an omlette, which comes with toast and hashbrowns except that the hasbrowns aren't shredded potatoes,  they are those potato disc things served at places like Mickey D's, coated and deep fried though at Chick's they crumble them! And pile them high on the plate, making sure you get your money's worth. Typically, most of the restaurant food we have seen here is invariably served with a dumptruck load of carbs and it leaves little to wonder why there is an obesity crisis in the U.S. Unfortunately now, after five weeks of being here, we are part of it. And the place is packed.

Inside Chick's. (Dining room not shown.)

Chick's from the outside.  The reataurant had been in the family since 1954 and i think every generation was working there this morning. It was called something else before that. There was a loft above the restaurant listed on Airbnb.

Nan was nursing her sore posterior. Even though we really didn't ride that far yesterday, our azzes begged to differ as we spent a lot of time on the bike not going  very far, so she stayed planted while I went out for a brief ride up to Park City via a little back road that was filled with 180 degree switchbacks and gaining 1200 metres in elevation. The speed limit on the road was 15 mph. Not just the curves, mind you, the road. But it was only about 35 km to Park City and  besides, there were plenty of motorcycles going up and down doing more than 15 mph.

The view from Guardian Pass, on the way to Salt Lake City.

Those are not ski runs
but cut lines and roads.

I had this big plan that while I was in Park City, I would pick up a couple of items. Park City is right in the middle of three ski resorts that were so close together it was hard to tell where one ended and the next began. From just about any place, you could see all three ski hills at once and at one point, I rode underneath a chairlift. 

There is massive resort development adjacent to the ski hills. Huge condominium complexes with hundreds of rooms which I presume must be catering to wealthy Salt Lake Citizens. I saw a Lamborghini with a ski rack on top. Many of the condos appear to be close enough to the slopes that residents would be able to ski straight to their accommodations. What I found odd, though, was that the mountains are not high. From my bike I could see the top of the runs and the bottom. It looked like a run would take only two or three minutes at most. All that investment hardly seemed worthwhile.

The other thing that I found odd was that there were very few men in Park City. I'm sure that was just my perception but frequently, I saw groups of women, four, six or eight strong walking or hiking without a man in sight. This was not isolated but common.  I wondered if there was some kind of convention in town because Main Street Park City was closed to vehicle traffic and there was no parking anywhere, which kept me from learning the secret of Park City as I couldn't be bothered to sort out the parking situation then walk 5 km to Main Street.

Once back to Heber City, Nan and I went for a splash in the motel pool then scouted out a place for dinner. There was the afore mentioned Chick's right across the street, a drive through hamburger/milkshake spot next to the motel which looked pretty popular and the smell of the greasy burgers cooking was somewhat enticing, the grocery store (bagged salad) 1 km away or The Back 40, which had an interesting menu, about 2 km away. Sadly, booze and bikes don't mix and we were in the mood to have a glass of wine with dinner, so we elected to walk. It was still pretty warm but we did it. The walk was about a half hour and as we approached, we could see from afar that there were a lot of vehicles parked there. We joked that the restaurant was probably closed for a provate function. As we got close, we could see that there were a lot of people waiting outside of the front of the restaurant. This was a little grim, given that we had just made a considerable investment to get there (and would to get home) and there were all these people outside and not in the restaurant. Nonetheless, undaunted, we pushed our way through the throngs of people and got in line at the front. It turns out, a reservation would be helpful. 

Sitting at the bar in The Back 40.

The place is packed. All tables full. But wait! There is a bar with two empty seats and we indicate we are happy to sit at the bar (which is true) so we were immediately seated.

Full to the brim.

Turns out to be a pretty good restaurant - not your average greasy spoon- with some of the menu items not being fried

Nan and I split a first course of tuna something. It was amazing.

Then we both ended up having grilled salmon, which was also very good. And dessert.

Late this afternoon, a group from the Over 70s gang rolled into our motel. Theor ride was from Boulder, Colorado today (about 350 miles.) They didn't appear to be intimidated by us. We heard them carrying on in the room next door until 9:30 tonight!

Day 34: Monumental

Heber City, Utah

Distance for the day: 294.8 km

Cumulative distance: 7,317.6 km

Top speed: 133 kph

Moving average: 82 kph

Temperature:  14.2 - 37.2

Spent the morning at Dinosaur Natuonal Monument, a fascinating trip back in time seeing dinosaur fossils embedded in the silty, ashen rock that holds the bones.

That is a big bone.

Here, Nan is getting acquainted with a 149 million year old bone.

This is the most complete Allosaurus skeleten found anywhere.

Pinch and zoom, if you can. This rock face was filled with bones.

Green River, which was almost Green Reservoir.

This building was constructed to protect the wall
of fossils and allow viewers to study them.

Stegasaurus disply outside the visitor's centre.

Fun haters. Spoiling a perfectly good photo op.

There is a "wall" of rock, long since turned perpendicular to what is our base ground. Fossils from the region date back to about 149 million years, 85 million years before the Extinction Event that eliminated dinosaurs from remaining the dominant animal species on Earth.  The wall is enclosed inside a building that was built around the fossil bed.

Ranger Molly explained to me that a river flowed through here but there is evidence (fossilized clam shells) that there were at least two periods of extreme drought. The dinosaurs would have gathered around the river to have access to water and plant life that would have remained until the droughts delivered their final verdicts.  The dinosaurs would have died near the reliver then subsequent floods had washed their carcasses and bones down river and collected in this spot. Millennia of ash from volcanoes in what is now California drifted and fell in the region, burying the bones. Many layers of rock reflect the multiple times the region has been home to an inland sea and drifting ash. Tectonic activity since then has folded the former sea floor to create rising rock formations, exposing the fossils.

We did a little moto tour through the park, at least where the road was paved, including one campground which surprised us to no end that it was not fully booked for a Friday. The geography, the geology was realy quite dramatic including several rocky areas that were a distinctive light green and to top it off, the road was swarming with LOCUSTS or at least, Mormon Grasshoppers. We saw them by the thousands walking on the road and alongside. Not sure what is so special about them that they felt they could take over... well, Utah but there seems to be some kind of connection: Mormon - Utah. "Mormon crickets are named after the role they played in the mid 19th century invasion of Mormon's settlers crops in the Salt Lake Valley of Utah." I had a difficult time avoiding them on the bike. I didn't want that bug splatter all over. Me. 

Mormon cricket.

In 1950, there was a plan to build a 168 metre dam on the Green River, which passes by the park, which would have flooded the region and the fossils would have been lost. Fortunately, the American public objected and the plan was scrapped. That was back when "united we stand" as seen all over US license plates, meant something.

After the park, the ride was pretty routine. We had discussed going north then west and

Vending machine where we had lunch. Teach those kids early!

The Vernal dinosaur collection.

south to Herber City but decided there was too much risk in getting to our destination close to the start of the Oilers game. Not unlike yesterday, we went through a pretty major storm cell. We could see thunder clouds building ahead of us and we talked about puttig on our rain gear before we got nailed. I was looking for a place to safely pull over but none was forthcoming, unless I was prepared to make a very tight turnaround on gravel. The wind had us buffeting around, with swirling winds blowing us left and right. My hands were getting tired hanging onto the handlebars. Then the rain started but to our amazement, we were pretty much through it in only 15 minutes.  The skies remained threatening all around us but we kind of shot throught the middle and it continued to rain on our left and right but we slipped through without getting too wet. Less so than yesterday in fact. 

Arrived in Herber City at 4:00 pm, in time to go pick up "some refreshments" before the game. 

We had the US feed on the TV in the motel and the Canadian feed on the tablet.

Oiler's deadline acquisition Adam Henrique scoring the GAME WINNING GOAL!

Hard to believe after three games of this series, we were all thinking that the Oilers just didn't have what it takes. Now, after the last three games, we are all thinking the Panthers just don't have what it takes. Game 7 Monday, winner takes all!